“I think it is a step in the right direction,” Boehner said when asked about US President Barack Obama’s upcoming announcement of his intention to soon send 400 military advisors to Iraq.
Boehner warned that the decision was a “tactical move.”
“But as the president admitted the other day, he has no strategy to win,” he said. “I support the tactical move the president is taking but where is the overarching strategy?”
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported citing American officials that the Obama Administration would announce later in the day its plan to send up to 450 more US military specialists to Iraq to train Iraqi forces to reclaim the recently captured city of Ramadi.
The United States currently has 3,000 troops in Iraq in a training capacity and continues to carry out airstrikes on ISIL positions in Iraq, as well as Syria, where the Sunni radicals have also ceased vast territories.
The airstrikes are part of international US-led coalition efforts to eradicate ISIL, which has become notorious for its brutal tactics and beheadings of western journalists. The coalition was formed by Obama in September 2014, and its military action has been limited to airstrikes.
On the ground, IS fighters are being opposed by Iraqi forces and Kurdish militia. However, despite the joint efforts, ISIL has recently made advances in Iraq, capturing Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province located some 80 miles west of Baghdad.
